BLW - listen to this, Gill Rapley vs Annabel Karmel - you decide!

[wherethewildthingsare]

I saw a link to this on the yahoo BLW site - it's an audio clip from Woman's Hour from 2004 and includes a chat with Gill Rapley (the main 'expert' in this) and Annabel Karmel (the weaning 'guru' who doesn't much like it, probably because we wouldn't need to buy her puree recipes!). Gill Rapley gives a very good defence of the 'won't they choke? argument'

Try the link below - it will not take me directly to the page for some annoying reason, although it will in hotmail - but if you type in 'baby feeding' in the search box it will take you to a list of archives and the one you want is the fourth item in the list.

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2004_23_thu_01.shtml\Gill vs Annabel on BLW}

Ok, it didn't work in preview but the link seems to be perfect now! :)

And this is a selection of Radio 4 listeners' responses to add to the debate.

\link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2004_24_fri_05.shtml\viewers responses}

Er.. listeners that is.

I am all for BLW. We started my ds on finger foods at 26 weeks. He's now 8 months and I haven't spoon fed him anything. He has never choked (yes, he gagged at the the beginning as would a spoon fed baby, but that's entirely different from choking) and can eat raw carrot and raw apple etc without any bother. Obviously I am very close by whilst he is eating, but choking is not a concern for me.

We were at my SILs yesterday for fathers day. She did a buffet and there were loads of things on there that ds could eat. He sat in his totseat feeding himself whilst the rest of us ate too. He was delighted to be doing the same as everyone else.

I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but my experience of it is 100% positive.

This is a really interesting thread,and I listened to the experts and listeners discussions. I guess the easy answer is do what's right for you. I did take the AK route with my now 17 months old dd and for the most part it seems to have worked okay. Sure there are things she doesn't like, but she can and does eat most fruits and veg and chunks of chicken, minced beef etc. Obviously I don't give her cubes of steak. She gets her sweets and treats too, but happily eats home made food. So I feel the traditional route worked for me.